Lafiagi

Lafiagi, town, Kwara state, west central Nigeria, on the south bank of the Niger River. It was founded in 1810 by Malam Maliki and his brother Manzuma, two Fulani leaders from Gwandu, 250 mi (400 km) north-northwest, as a fortified town in Nupe territory. Following Maliki’s death in 1824, the Emir of Gwandu named Manzuma as Lafiagi’s first emir. The Lafiagi emirate survived serious Nupe revolts in the late 1820s and again in the late 1890s, with the aid of the forces of the Royal Niger Company. The Lafiagi ruler, whose title was changed from emir to chief in 1949, has served since 1954 as the chairman of the Federated Council of Lafiagi, Sharagi, and Shonga (20 mi northwest), founded by Maliki’s son, Aliyu. Lafiagi is now the headquarters of the Edun Local Government Council. Most of the traditional emirate’s inhabitants are Muslim Nupe people.

A market centre for rice, yams, sorghum, millet, corn (maize), sugarcane, kola nuts, peanuts (groundnuts), palm produce, fish, cattle, and cotton, the town is also a collecting point for the rice grown on the fadamas (“floodplains”) of the Niger and for dried fish. Cotton and tobacco are local cash crops, and cotton weaving is traditionally important. Lafiagi has a government maternity clinic and dispensary. Pop. (2008 est.) 30,976.